[jmmcd]

> UBI reduces the incentive to work, and risks stranding millions of people in a subsistence living trap, able to just about get by, but cut off from the opportunity for upward mobility, as this essay details well.

The claim is prima facie false, so I looked at the source provided ("this essay" is [1]) and it doesn't support that claim AT ALL.

[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601499/basic-income-a-sel...

[dmichulke]

I think the reasoning goes like that:

If you give 100k people each 10k$ each month, chances are that some of them stop working because they consider it enough.

The same holds for 1k$ but to a lesser extent.

Still, UBI reduces the incentive to work.

[RobertoG]

So, they give money to people because there are not enough works and then complain because the people don't work.

I get lost somewhere in the reasoning.

[jmmcd]

I can accept the claim that it reduces the incentive to work (a bit), but not the claim that there is any trap that prevents upward mobility.